Maldives

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT MALDIVES - PAGE 5

INCHEON: Indian men hardly broke a sweat as they thrashed unfancied Maldives 25-10 25-19 25-17 in exactly an hour to enter the quarterfinal of the Volleyball competition at the 17th Asian Games here today. The male spikers had beaten Hong Kong in their first group league game and by virtue of two wins in the four-team group, find themselves earning a last eight berth. India will play the formidable Iran (Asia No 2) in the final group league encounter. Iran are silver-medallists from the last edition in Guangzhou.

New Delhi: ONYX Hospitality Group , Thailand's leading hotel management company, has been appointed by the Maldives Tourism Development Corporation Plc (MTDC) to manage the Herathera Island Resort commencing December 1, 2010. Set on Addu, the southern-most atoll in the Maldives, approximately 480km south of the capital Male, the 273-villa resort features three natural lagoons, a turtle hatchery and a unique 4 km beach, the longest of any resort within the archipelago. Recreational facilities at Herathera Island Resort include three swimming pools, a range of restaurants and bars, a spa and dive centre.

MUMBAI: IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, the Asian Development Bank, and HDFC Investments, a subsidiary of HDFC, are investing in Maldives to help reduce the country's severe housing shortage. The equity and loan investment package will enable privatisation of state-run Maldives' Housing Development Finance Corporation and transform it into a commercially viable private sector-led company, a press release issued here today said. The equity component of the package is around $12.75 million.

MALE: A number of Indian films including Girish Kasaravalli's "Dweepa" and Jahnu Barua's "Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara" are being screened at Maldives' first international film festival here. The South Asian Film Festival Maldives 2007 began on May 8 and several films, including "Uttara" by Buddhadeb Dasgupta, "Cyanide" (Kananda) by A M R Ramesh and Nagesh Kukunoor's "Iqbal", are being shown in a film workshop being run concurrently with the event. The film workshop is being conducted by filmmakers Anwar Jamal and Sehjo Singh and critic Utpal Borpujari on behalf of Film Trust India, which is also curating the festival.

NEW DELHI: The investment of GMR Infrastructure and debt exposure of a clutch of Indian banks to the Male International Airport appeared to be under a cloud as a Singapore court upheld the right of Maldives to take over the airport, after days of fierce wrangling. The court, however, also emphasised GMR's right to compensation. The Singapore Court of Appeal, the city state's highest court, overturned a Tuesday order by a lower court that barred Maldives from interfering with the airport's operations.

MALE: World community today stepped up efforts to end the political stalemate in Maldives , with India seeking a peaceful solution to the "complex" situation and the US sending a top diplomat to the tiny nation, whose new leader expressed readiness to face a probe into charges of a coup. Four days after 44-year-old Mohammad Nasheed was "forced" to step down as President, India said it was for Maldivians to take charge of the situation. "The situation is of course complex.

NEW DELHI/MALE: Maldives today said that its cabinet has recommended termination of a contract given to GMR Group for developing Male Airport, a project awarded to the Indian group during the previous regime of island nation. The Maldives cabinet in a meeting today decided to terminate the contract and a notice to this effect was issued to GMR Group, Maldivian President's Press Secretary Masood Imad said in a statement. The $500-million project was hanging in balance ever since the regime change in Maldives earlier this year.

NEW DELHI: In a stern message to Maldives, India today said it expected no arbitrary and coercive action should be taken pending the outcome of legal proceedings on the GMR contract issue and warned that recourse to any such action would have adverse consequences for bilateral relations. In response to a question on the GMR issue, the official Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs also said "we are concerned over reports from the Maldives about continuing violence and intimidation against elected representatives and expressions of radical sentiments".

NEW DELHI: India's financial aid of $25 million to Maldives could wither away as bilateral ties have been strained following Male's decision to scrap GMR's $500 million project. No formal decision may be needed to stop the aid as the Maldivian government will be in no position to seek aid after unilaterally cancelling the GMR project over which India has expressed displeasure. "During his telephonic conversation with foreign minister Salman Khurshid , Maldivian foreign minister Abdul Samad Abdullah said he was not aware of India's displeasure over the issue," an official source said in Delhi.